In-soil data monitoring system and method

1. Technical Field

The present disclosure relates generally to apparatus, systems and methods for in-soil data monitoring, data capture and data fusion. More specifically, the disclosure relates to an in-soil data monitoring system employing an unmanned vehicle (UV) and a wireless soil sensor for use in agricultural and chemical spill settings for improved high resolution alerts and corrective actions.

2. Background

Current methods of assessing crop health rely on monitoring spectral content of light reflected by the plants. Commonly referred to as remote sensing, these methods use passive sensors on satellites and aircraft or active sensors mounted on tractors. There are drawbacks to these methods in that many variables can impact reflectivity including nutrient deficiencies, differences among varieties, field resolution, disease, etc. In particular, soil type is one of the more significant variables in using this method of nutrient sensing. While these tools are useful in examining crop health, they are indirect measurements and ultimately require previous knowledge of the soil conditions and specialized algorithms to properly evaluate crop conditions.

In order to address these inherent deficiencies associated with remote sensing and spectral monitoring, a very small, biodegradable soil sensor has been developed, which is disclosed in patent number WO 2014/113460 A1 entitled Biodegradable Soil Sensor, Systems and Method, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The biodegradable soil sensor is essentially mixed in with the seed of the crop and is planted along with the seed in the soil. The seed is configured to measure various data associated with crop health and wirelessly transmit that data for collection and analysis in order to determine if corrective actions (such as for example more water or fertilizer) may be necessary to improve crop health. While this patent application does mention the use of aerial vehicles for the collection of the data from the soil sensor, there is no discussion or teaching on how the data is to be correlated and analyzed in order to determine the best corrective actions.

Therefore, it is an object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure to provide a system for the collection and analysis of biodegradable soil sensors for measuring crop health that is configured to take direct measurements from the soil and further analyze and correlate that data in order to obtain an appropriate corrective action to improve crop health.

The soil sensors mentioned above could also be used to monitor areas for chemical spills or other bio-hazardous events by planting the sensors in the ground adjacent for example a buried pipe line or the like. The soil sensor may be configured to detect the presence of a specific chemical and wirelessly transmit an alert to an overflying aerial vehicle or ground vehicle.

While there are commercially available products that directly measure the presence of a chemical, these sensors are typically large, bulky, and expensive. This means that fewer sensors are available within a particular area generating low resolution data which may not give accurate information about conditions throughout a particular area and may not detect spills immediately which could result in catastrophic environmental damage.

Therefore, another object, feature, or advantage of the present disclosure is to provide a biodegradable soil sensing system that is configured to detect the presence of a chemical or hazardous compound leak and wirelessly transmit an alert to a vehicle. Additionally, a distributed matrix of wireless in soil sensors applied with sufficient density across an area of interest and spatially correlated can provide of sufficient insight into soil stability. Routine observation of the relative position of nodes within a remote sensor network over time can provide insight into soil stability to indentify changes due to influences such as frost heave, compromised sub-surface infrastructure, or environmental impacts to severe weather or seismic activity.

One or more of these and/or other objects, features or advantages of the present disclosure will become apparent from the specification and claims that follow.

FIG. 1A is a diagram of the planting process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, and

FIG. 1B is a diagram of the data retrieval process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, and

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the chemical spill monitoring system in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, and

FIG. 3 is a simplified flow diagram showing the data analysis process of a crop field or chemical spill in accordance with an embodiment of the invention.

Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure are set forth in the following text to provide a thorough understanding and enabling description of a number of particular embodiments. Numerous specific details of various embodiments are described below with reference to in soil sensors and the use of aerial vehicles, but embodiments can be used with other features. In some instances, well-known structures or operations are not shown, or are not described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the inventive subject matter associated with the accompanying disclosure. A person skilled in the art will understand, however, that the invention may have additional embodiments, or that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details of the embodiments as shown and described.

Referring first to FIG. 1A , which shows a soil sensor 12 being deposited on a crop field in accordance with an embodiment of the invention 10 . The biodegradable soil sensor 12 is of the type disclosed in patent number WO 2014/113460 A1 entitled Biodegradable Soil Sensor, Systems and Method, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. A plurality of soil sensors 12 are mixed in with crop seed 13 and the sensors 12 and seeds 13 are placed in a seed dispenser 20 which is towed across the planting field by a vehicle 18 . The seeds 13 and the sensors 12 are planted in rows 15 as required by the specific crop being grown. It should be noted that the method of planting the seed and soil sensor could take on many well known variations, all of which are fully contemplated by the invention.

Referring now to FIG. 1B , which shows the crop field of FIG. 1A , after it has had time for the seeds 13 to grow into plants 32 . In this figure, the soil sensor 12 is shown beneath the surface 30 of the field and is configured to measure data concerning the soil immediately surrounding the soil sensor 12 and transmit that data wirelessly through a wireless link 34 . The soil sensor communications may be active transmissions or passively interrogated. The soil sensor 12 could be configured to measure for example, moisture level, nitrogen level or any characteristic or combination of characteristics that is desired in order to determine the condition of the soil.

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) 22 is configured to fly over the field in a predetermined pattern and record geodetic high resolution imagery data 26 from the crop field using an imaging payload disposed on the UAV. Disposed on each wing of the UAV is a RFID interrogator array 24 a and 24 b which are configured to communicate with the soil sensors 12 using any wireless technique, with the preferred embodiment employing passive RFID. The RFID interrogator arrays 24 a and 24 b are set a predetermined distance apart on the UAV in order to leverage time/frequency domain difference of signal arrival from the seed sensor 12 in order to determine the relative location of a seed sensor to the UAV. In addition, preferably, the UAV will also have GPS capabilities so that the collected data from the sensors 12 and the geodetic imagery data 26 can be geodetically located and correlated into a high resolution map which indicates relatively precise location information. For more precise location information, the system could alternatively employ the use of augmented or differential GPS (DGPS) which would increase the positional accuracy of the measured data.

For illustration purposes only, an automated water sprinkler 35 is shown adjacent the crop field which may be programmed to apply corrective watering of the crops based on the analysis of the collected and correlated data. A water sprinkler 35 is shown for illustration purposes of a typical corrective action that may be required as a result of the collected data, but corrective actions could include for example a means for distributing fertilizer, pesticide or the like, based on the results of the data analysis.

Referring now to FIG. 2 , where like numerals represent like features, a system for detecting chemical spills 10 is shown. In this embodiment, the soil sensor 12 is dispersed along the surface of right of way 16 that is adjacent a buried pipe-line 14 . Similar to the system shown in FIG. 1A , the soil sensor 12 is configured to detect the presence of a chemical or chemicals in order to detect the occurrence of a leak from the pipe-line 14 . The UAV 22 is programmed to fly over the pipeline in order to interrogate the soil sensors 12 using the RFID interrogator arrays 24 a and 24 b to detect the presence of a leak or spill. Again, the UAV 22 also has GPS or DGPS capability so that the collected data from the soil sensor 12 can be correlated with a specific location. Also the UAV 22 can record geodetic high resolution imagery data 26 .

Referring now to FIG. 3 , where a simplified flow diagram of the data fusion process for the data collection described in FIGS. 1A, 1B and 2 is shown. Multi-spectral image data 36 is acquired by a specially configured payload affixed to the UAV 22 . This spectral image data 36 can include information concerning crop health. As discussed previously, seed sensor relative location data 38 is acquired which indicates where the seed sensor 12 is in relative location to the UAV 22 . Combining this relative location data 38 of the seed sensor with the UAV GPS and altitude data 42 the seed sensor absolute location 40 can be determined. This information is combined with the seed sensor data 44 . All the collected data is combined and a fused data set 46 may be created to generate an imagery mosaic with overlaid soil sensor data.

Depending on which scenario is being considered, in the case of the chemical spill alert process, the fused data 46 is analyzed to determine if a leak or spill has been detected at box 48 . If a leak has been detected at box 48 , an alert is created at box 50 which could include not only the location of the spill/leak, but also the size and severity of the spill/leak which will affect the appropriate corrective action response.

In the case of the agricultural process, the fused data set 46 will be correlated and analyzed at box 52 and based on this analysis a corrective action 54 may be required in order to improve crop health. As mentioned previously, the corrective action could be something like increased watering at specific locations of the crop field, or additional fertilizer could be applied in a predetermined area of the crop field.